Global Courant
New York City and neighboring areas have been brought to a standstill after a bout of heavy rain caused flash flooding, disrupted subway service, flooded ground-floor apartments and delayed flights.
Authorities declared a state of emergency and warned people to stay indoors as nearly eight inches of rain fell in some parts of the US’s most populous city. Several more inches could fall in the region before the storm system moves out to sea later Friday, forecasters said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul warned of “life-threatening” flooding and declared a state of emergency for New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley. Some National Guard troops were deployed to assist in the response.
In Mamaroneck, a Westchester County suburb north of the city, emergency crews used inflatable rafts to rescue people trapped in buildings by flooding.
According to the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, which operates both, flooding caused major disruptions to the New York subway system and the Metro North commuter rail line. Some metro lines were completely suspended and many stations were closed. Flights at LaGuardia Airport were also delayed due to rain. Some bus routes slowed to a crawl, leaving passengers stranded for hours.
Officials warned some New Yorkers not to travel unless they were fleeing a flooded area.
Systems that produce intense rainfall like Friday’s have become more common in many parts of the U.S., including the New York City area.
New York: The rain isn’t over yet. It is extremely dangerous to travel through flooded streets.
As rain continues to impact areas of the state below throughout the day, do not attempt to walk, cycle or drive in these conditions.
Pay attention to your safety. pic.twitter.com/gGeCShKR87
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) September 29, 2023
Climate change
Climate scientists say global warming has led to more extreme weather patterns in much of the world.
The rain capped one of New York’s wettest Septembers on record, with 11.5 inches of rain for the month as of 11 a.m. Friday, with more to come, said Dominic Ramunni, a National Weather Service forecaster. The all-time high was reached in 1882 when 16.82 inches (42.72 cm) fell in September.
“I don’t know if we’ll break the record, but we’ll get close,” Ramunni said.
It was the rainiest day at the city’s John F Kennedy International Airport since records began in 1948, the New York office of the National Weather Service said, citing preliminary data.
In some places, the water pooling in the streets was thirteen inches deep, she said, pouring over the tops of her children’s rain boots. Zhang said she had to make a second trip to school to get them dry shoes and socks.
“This is crazy,” she said. “When will this stop?”
Floods left vehicles stranded on the streets and flooded into metro stations, disrupting the journeys of millions of commuters.
Mohammed Doha, a 52-year-old construction worker who lives in a one-story, two-bedroom apartment in The Hole, a low-lying block on the Brooklyn-Queens border, splashed around his kitchen in sandals.
“If they had a good drainage system like the other parts of the city, we wouldn’t have this problem,” he said. “We are really suffering a lot.”
‘Travel advice’
Yasiel Ogando, a 38-year-old hospital worker who lives with her family in The Hole neighborhood, complained that the city failed to warn residents about the flooding, a complaint echoed by some elected officials. Some compared it to a lack of warnings in June before the arrival of toxic smoke from Canadian wildfires drifting south.
“Nothing happens,” Ogando said, after a morning of trying to get water mixed with sewage from the basement of the family home. “It’s very bad. It’s terrible.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams, whose office issued a “travel advisory” late Thursday night, defended his administration’s response at a news conference on Friday, saying “all necessary precautions had been taken.”
In neighboring New Jersey, low-lying Hoboken, a city directly across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan, declared a state of emergency, flooding all but one southern route into the city.
Hoboken’s newly installed floodgates, designed to close automatically when water collected on the roads, were broken and blocked many streets to vehicular traffic.
Friday’s deluge followed an onslaught of heavy rain and strong winds last weekend from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia. That storm drenched New York City and caused widespread power outages in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
In New York, intermittent rainfall has further saturated the ground this week, creating conditions that could lead to flash flooding.
